Guwahati, June 18: Babu Ahmad alias Ahmadollah will return to Assam after about 21 years to carry out his third execution in the state, this time of Mahendra Nath Das, who was awarded death penalty after being convicted of murder.
Das, however, got a reprieve with Gauhati High Court today staying his execution till July 21 after the Centre sought time to file its affidavit on a petition filed by Das’s mother.
The court had on June 7 asked both the state and Union government to explain the delay in President Pratibha Patil rejecting Das’s mercy petition and given time till today to file their affidavits while staying the execution during this time. While Dispur filed its affidavit today, the Centre sought three weeks’ time. The court fixed the next date of hearing as July 21, as it will be on vacation from July 4 to 14.
Sources said the Lucknow-based Ahmad was located through the prison authorities in Uttar Pradesh.
According to the sources, an officer was sent to Lucknow on June 6 to bring Ahmad to Jorhat where Das is now lodged in the central jail.
However, the officer had to be called back from Delhi while on his way to Lucknow after Gauhati High Court stayed the execution on June 7. “He is the same hangman who had carried out two executions in 1989 and 1990 at Jorhat jail,” a source said.
The first execution was that of Henry W. Roberts on November 20, 1989. Roberts was convicted of murdering a child of a Tinsukia-based businessman. The next execution by Ahmad at the same jail was of Kanpai Buragohain of Dhemaji on July 27, 1990. Buragohain was convicted of multiple murders.
Bani Kanta Baruah, jailor at the Jorhat district jail at the time of the two executions, recalled Ahmad telling him then he would not execute people anymore. “He, in fact, had even said he would not allow his children to do the work he was doing,” Baruah said. Das was sentenced to death in August 1997 after being convicted of killing one Hara Kanta Das in Guwahati. It was upheld by the high court in February 1998 and then by the Supreme Court in May 1999.
